Saudi Arabia: Careem hires first woman driver

At the beginning of this year, PakWheels.com reported that ride-hailing service Careem is in the process of hiring female drivers in Saudi Arabia after the government announced to let women drive cars on the roads. And now, as per the local Saudi media outlet, the company has hired its first ‘Captainah’ namely Enaam Gazi Al-Aswad. One important thing to mention here is that captainah is the female version of the Careem captain.

While speaking to the media, Enaam Gazi said that when the authorities announced that women would be able to drive cars, she was eager to be the first to do that, so that’s why she contacted Careem in this regard.

The 43-year-old learned to drive the car in her native country Syria and holds a driving license as well; however, she still needs to get Saudi driving visa to drive the car in the country, and for that reason, Enaam has to complete 10 hours of driving under new Saudi laws.

She also told the media that this is indeed wonderful that women are now allowed to drive cars freely without any problem and hassle.

The women would be allowed to drive cars in the country from June 24th, 2018. The authorities have made all the necessary preparations in this regard.

Moreover, ride-hailing service is aiming to hire around 10,000 female drivers by the end of June 2018. Last year the current King of the Saudi Kingdom issued a royal decree to let Saudi women acquire drivers’ licenses and drive cars without the permission of a legal guardian.